KNOXVILLE -- UT's new volleyball practice facility is being named the "Joan Cronan Volleyball Practice Facility" after Cronan, who spent three decades working for UT Athletics. The Board of Trustees approved the action on Thursday.

Construction began on the facility adjacent to Regal Soccer Stadium in February. It will be completed for the fall 2014 season.

The facility will feature three courts, a locker room and lounge, equipment room, film study room, and coaches' offices.

Cronan, who will retire at the end of this month, was women's athletic director for twenty-eight years and served a three-month term as vice chancellor and director of athletics when the men's and women's departments merged in 2011.

An athlete during her time as a student at Louisiana State University, Cronan coached the Lady Vols from 1968 to 1970. In 1969, she led the women's basketball team to an alternate berth in the first-ever women's National Invitational Collegiate Basketball Tournament.

During her tenure at UT, the Lady Vols became one of the most visible and well-respected programs in the country, amassing ten NCAA national championship titles, forty-six top five NCAA finishes, and twenty-nine Southeastern Conference regular-season championships.